This user who is known to watch a lot of Barca youth footage rated Simons (?), Gill (?) in his La Masia Team of the Season. Still have never seen him play and he's still only 14, I think so no sense getting too excited for another few years. I tried to watch all available La Masia matches this season. I decided to choose the team of the 2019/2020 season (Juvenil A -> Infantil B). pic.twitter.com/1MnMR5QZia— Piotr Guziński (@Nyctophile1_) July 5, 2020
Yup otherwise we have another Ben Lederman on our hands. Although he turned out mediocre for what happened.
not sure how this wasn’t posted here yet but high praise on simons And more to come... Also, Adrian Simons Gill is an amazing young talent with enormous potential. Technically savvy, great space awareness, very high soccer IQ. The best 2006 young midfielder I've seen. The next Iniesta 😉 @FCBmasia https://t.co/MbyijkPeQH— Miha Kline (@MihaKline7) October 16, 2020
Extremely high praise. Is the author a reputable source, or just a random person? Either way, it’s great that he’s doing so well!
Piotr Guzinski, La Masia insider recently threw together a twitter thread on "the most interesting players from the 2006 La Masia class", which he calls "another great generation" and "one of the best in my opinion at the moment." RE: Simons he has this to say: "One of the best midfielders in La Masia in my opinion. Very mature and intelligent. Great first contact with the ball, field overview, balance, technique. He also has a strong shot from a distance. This season, still without a goal, but has a few assists."
He's now with Cadete B, which contains 2006's with one exception. https://www.fcbarcelona.es/es/futbol/formativo-masculino/cadete-b/jugadores It looks like Barcelona keeps the birth years together so that Cadete A = 2005, Cadete B = 2006, Infantil A = 2007, and Infantil B = 2008, almost without exception. What I find really surprising is how strong the birth month effect is, where the older kids in each group are favored. I know this is a pretty well documented effect in youth sports, but I would have thought that La Masia would be smarter when adjusting for age in their evaluations. Maybe there's another reason for this that I'm missing? Here are the number of players in either Cadete B, Infantil A, or Infantil B by birth month: Jan-Mar: 43 Apr-Jun: 16 July-Sep: 7 October: 2 There isn't a single November or December birth month listed on the roster for those three years currently at La Masia. Edit to add that according to that roster, Adrian was born January 3, 2006. Lucky for him he wasn't born four days earlier.
The only rational justification I can think of for the birth-month effect is that Barca figures there's at most one or two Iniesta's per birth year. These mini-Iniesta's are going to rise to the top anyway regardless of birth month, and you need to otherwise surround them with the best players of the age group, which are the older kids. Anyway, that's the best I can do, but it doesn't explain why the effect tends to carry over to the senior team as well.
15-year-old American midfielder Adrian Simons Gill at Barcelona 👀 pic.twitter.com/scZoIQudtw— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) October 18, 2021
Adrian Simon and Pau Prim made their Juvenil B debuts today! pic.twitter.com/PYqUE2B7li— FCB Canteranos (@fcbcanteranos) January 8, 2022
Youth contract is up at the end of the year. Would have to think this promotion shows how much they value him.
Adrian Simon • 2021 Highlights • 2021/2022 Season • Cadet A • División de Honor Cadet pic.twitter.com/sJ0vbXXaUs— ArsenKveFCB (@ArsenKveFCB) February 4, 2022
Barca contract coming? US youth international midfielder Adrian Gill is in talks to sign his first professional contract with Spanish giants FC Barcelona, I’m told.Gill, who turned 16 last month, is a standout with Barca’s famed La Masia academy. The Colorado native part of USYNT U17 set up. pic.twitter.com/vQYWJ9qS7U— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) February 12, 2022
Starts (with Diego Kochen): Cadete A XI vs. Manresa: pic.twitter.com/d2FE2pjauR— Piotr Guziński (@Nyctophile1_) February 13, 2022
That is it? I was expecting more highlights for a whole season. He reminds me of Aaronson. He doesn't possess a physical game, plays smart, looks for the easier, simpler forward pass. I think Aaronson's brother may be better than this kid, but this kid is just 16.
Yeah he still looks like a kid. We will have to wait and see how he develops on this front. At barely 16 he may still have a looong way to go with regards to his growth and muscle development.
He did anticipate and find good angles to ride guys off the ball defensively a couple times...but yeah, nothing on that that made me think of those vids of a young CP or either of the Aaronsons with their foot skills. The thing that stood out the most to me is that Barca gave this kid the 8 or 10 jersey...and that's pretty cool.
I saw that this guy actually had good play strength, especially for his current size (in particular, see the sequences at :20 and 1:10). Now these are select “highlights” which of course only tell part of the story, but those indicate that he’s willing to be aggressive and pretty skilled defensively despite being a bit underdeveloped with his frame. Wasn’t much evidence from that to say he was struggling with the physicality - maybe in full games it might be showing up more. In addition, he’s very good in small spaces. His short area quickness is very good. Twitchy guy with an ability to create space and has good vision/anticipation. Not enough exposure from that cut-up to really judge overall attacking ability, but I’m sure there’s someone around here who’s watched more of him and probably has a good pulse on that. But he has some higher-level skills to work with. Overall technique doesn’t seem elite right now but is above average and projectable. I think he projects well trait-wise from that cut-up, which is really what you’re looking for at that stage in a player’s development. I suspect that the video editor didn’t include all of his games or maybe he was hurt and missed some (and don’t have time to check right now), but regardless, production is far from the most important thing when a player is that young. Nice to have, but not as important as individual traits. I think he has some good ones to work with and we’ll see how he develops - as others said, still a ways to go and a lot can happen.
I agree with everything else you wrote- but that was something that popped to me as well. His ability to turn and the anticipation/understanding of when/where to do it and what the next options were popped to me a bit. But again, my main take away is that Barca gave this kid the 8 and 10 jersey- not something they'd do lightly.